Ravens keep Saints winless in preseason

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) scrambles away from pressure during the first quarter of the game against the Baltimore Ravens at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.(Photo: Matt Bush/USA TODAY Sports)

NEW ORLEANS — Baltimore’s Josh Johnson passed for 181 yards and rushed for a short touchdown, and the Ravens defeated the New Orleans Saints 23-14 on Thursday night in both clubs’ preseason finale.

The performance was an important one for Johnson, who is competing with Ryan Mallett to back up Joe Flacco.

Mallett, who started, was 8-of-12 for 65 yards before Johnson was given a chance to finish the game.

The loss dropped the Saints to 0-4 and completed their second straight winless preseason. New Orleans has now lost nine straight preseason games, a streak that began against Baltimore in the Superdome at the end of the 2014 preseason.

Saints coach Sean Payton had said when the preseason began that he thought it was important to try to win preseason games in order to cultivate a competitive edge on the heels of back-to-back 7-9 regular seasons. So following a sluggish outing by starters in a preseason loss to Pittsburgh a week earlier, Payton elected to play his starters early against the Ravens.

But the offensive line, which has struggled this preseason, continued to do so. Baltimore’s defense registered three sacks — one of which resulted in a fumble for a touchdown — and held the Saints to 259 total net yards.

Drew Brees started at quarterback for New Orleans and led the Saints to a field goal on his only drive, going 3-of-6 for 40 yards. Luke McCown replaced Brees but struggled, completing only two passes on four attempts and also lost a fumble into the end zone when he was sacked and stripped by undrafted rookie nose guard Michael Pierce, who also recovered the fumble for a touchdown in the second quarter.

Garrett Grayson finished the game for the Saints at quarterback, completing 11 of 16 passes for 98 yards and a late touchdown on a 3-yard pass to fullback Austin Johnson.

Saints defensive tackle David Onyemata, a fourth-round pick out of Manitoba, had what appeared to be a sack of Johnson, but it was wiped out by rookie cornerback Ken Crawley’s illegal contact penalty.